Saturday nights & neon lights

I am still dumbfounded by the purview of emotions that can occur in the span of one day and how it can be expanded without warning. From ennui to elation within a span of a few hours; the dreaded packing of all things domestic was remedied with a quick, emphatic unwrapping. I am stunned by the fact that someone still cares and was left speechless by the act itself. The appreciation is infinite and won't fall victim a forgetful mindset or the whims of pride. Here's to a few more sleepless nights and the foot-tapping fatuousness they cincture.
This will be lauded for its role in the swelling, uplifting turn around- personally- for a year the was getting the best of most of us. We all are in need of a little potency added to our day-to-day to ensure nothing less than constant betterment against the odds, both visceral and external. This should do the trick. Merci.

Proceed without caution.

Throughout my World Literature class, we dealt with the the incessant battle between the notion of Beauty vs. Duty. We spent a great amount of our time discussing the idea of tangible divine beauty that transcends our cursory views on the topic and its effects upon our mindsets. Our professor gave us a simple, yet truly Daedalian, equation to try to help us traverse the rest of our days of battle: Love = Wound = Death = Heaven.

We later updated Heaven to include our temporal reality as we make it. This perception allows for us to not only work towards a terminus, but to use every waking moment to create our idealistic firmament with both feet on the ground. I sit here with virtually every forth coming minute for my avail and I count them each like the days left on a prison sentence. I've openly acknowledged my predilection towards Duty, but this may be bordering on complete ignorance towards the sanctity of Beauty. I am also fully cognizant of how vacillant I have been throughout my life. Any and all recognizable effort to change this has stemmed from the following excerpt on the multifarious forms of Pride:

Closely linked to this form of pride [pharisaical] is the pride of timidity, which stems from unreasonable fear. It makes us fearful of others' opinions, so that we cater to human respect. Under its impulse we fail to act when we should, because a groundless fear holds us to the bonds of a spiritual sloth that paralyzes our efforts and makes us incapable of determination, and so we let opportunities pass by unused.

We have all suffered from this. I realize this with every critique of my own work, both formal and informal. The bold, sweeping gestures I have envisioned get shelved in order to not gain attention from critics and classmates alike. After sitting in on a Design 1 crit, attending the Undergrad Pin-Up at University of Florida, and trying to develop my own process, I have realized how imperative it is to put it all out there and deal with any naysayers when the time is right and not a moment before. I have been afflicted by self-doubt for far too long and refuse to slow down my passions out of an unsolicited trepidation.

When your moments of introspection induce feelings of regret- not only from poor judgment, but also from sitting on your hands- you must belay such a condition and react to your apprehension with a mettle I believe is an intrinsic drive in each and everyone of us. There is no way to see what happens unless you make it happen. No, you won't always come out the victor and may have to face Odyssean trials throughout your lifetime, but that should be no reason to never become the fiery materialization of unadulterated passion. Whether your cathexis is temporal or transcendental, you must own every particle of that ardor. En avant.

Tonight I have to leave it

Facing a few weeks of unstructured existence and a lengthy period of incommunicado from someone who I constantly bombard with the entire gauntlet of daily musings, from banal to pressing, I have come full circle into a well known domain of thought. This hazy time of waiting will encompass crucial activities, but nothing I'm looking forward to. Without that connection, no matter its tacitness, I envision a time of looking for that glimmer that constantly occurs in my periphery. We once concurred it's out there- we know it is- so its existence isn't our concern, it's the deciphering of it all we're trying to clear up.
I can float around this town, wasting my time in a truly shiftless manner, or I can eat the days alive with only the intrinsic biological needs to slow me down. A few years back, I had an evening of debauchery filled with booze and me commanding everyone to "Tear it up!", while barely heeding my own fomenting. I'll truly find out if I'm living for the experience or for the prospect to tell someone else about it.
I can handle the days, It's the nights without sharing of the day-to-day that I'm fretting over. Noon and three will be hollowed out until they no longer resemble what they truly mean. I constantly hear of post-crit sleep and how it's better than any other slumber you'll experience. Tonight I don't see it happening and tomorrow isn't looking to promising either. I was dead on my feet all week; for now I'll be dead on my back.

"If it is to be, it is up to me"

The deluge of knowledge finds new paths every day. You stumble upon new facts, ideas, and even entire systems of education that you've never knew existed. It's these small leads that unfold into big breakthroughs that I seek. Some pinhole that eventually evolves into a gorge. You have to constantly change with this knowledge; allowing it to shape and be shaped by your perspective.
I have a professor who constantly questions why we are not more ardent beings. He constantly challenges us, almost mockingly, to "save our generation." It's an idea that has been nagging American culture for ages. The prostration of our passions has caused us to become stagnant in the face of a gyroscopic society. There is something bigger out there in the ether waiting to be designed, formed, and learned by all of us. The collection of these creations will shape not only our future, but our place in a history that is in dire need of something favorable.
This all falls under the notion of how we design our surroundings. I have developed a conflagrant desire to use this all encompassing knowledge for an amelioration of not only my local surroundings, but for it to spread like the aforementioned pinhole. There is something in all of us to produce better mediums for everyone. I don't want this to be misconstrued as some socialist drivel; I have no desire to promote such a sentiment.
Having found myself in a situation I could not have foreseen, or maybe I was too guileless to want to believe was possible, I have decided to dedicate myself to the notions I have mentioned above. This idea of squeezing every last drop from life has become a new cynosure of my abilities and fervor. Whatever becomes of my life, it is because I shaped it myself. There are myriad encumbrances that must be dealt with in our lifetimes. We can either use them or be decimated by them until we no longer feel in control. I hope none of us ever lose that control.

Introduction / Methodology

The title of this blog was liberally borrowed from designer Bruce Mau's "Incomplete Manifesto for Growth". Statement number 14 says: "Don't be cool. Cool is conservative fear dressed in black. Free yourself from limits of this sort." This notion of a superficial armature against the world has had an adverse effect on us for far too long and I fear it may end up establishing a negative connotation. We decided to update the statement for use in contemporary times; which will continue the cycle of falling out of vogue and ironically become dated itself.
We will try to refrain from petty name calling and tawdry gossip no matter how petty and tawdry we feel at that particular point in time. Frankly, I have grown tired of wasting my time on the trivial and have decided to use my time developing a new outlook and trying to project my ideas, notions, whims, and fancies upon the zeitgeist.
I know both of us use our environment, no matter the circumstances, as inspiration and a catalyst for motivation. (Also, I'll try to stop speaking for the both of us). Feel free to comment, borrow, inspire, or discount anything written within this page. I am fully cognizant of how much I have to learn from others and will openly welcome confrontation and criticism.
En avant.